Bulgarian Watchdog Rejects Another Appeal over Sofia's Waste Plant

The construction of the Sofia waste treatment plant has already been delayed by more than a year. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Competition Protection Commission (CPC) has rejected the appeals against the public procurement tender for building of a waste treatment plant in Sofia.

The public procurement tender was won by a consortium between the Bulgarian “Stanilov” company and the German “Heilit”, who offered BGN 209 M, and was afterwards attacked with appeals by four of the rejected competitors.

The German “Hochtief” and the Greek “Helector”, who participated with a joint bid in the tender of the Sofia Municipality but were ranked second, appealed against the outcome of the tender.

According to the appealers, the winner did not meet the requirement of the municipality for having experience in construction of waste treatment plants. However, CPC have decided there were no gaps in the documents of the consortium.

The other three competitors who have appealed to the state watchdog are the Bulgarian companies “Balkanstroi”, “Valmex” and the Austrian “Alpine Bau”. They are among the seven consortium who appeal their elimination from the tender.

The Competition Protection Commission has decided that they did not meet the requirements for having experience in construction of waste treatment plants and did not prove to have key experts.

The CPC decision could be appealed before the Supreme Administrative Court within 14 days of its notification to the parties.

However, the appeal could slow down the start of the construction of the waste treatment plant, which has already been delayed by a year.

The construction deadline is 2 years from the date of the signing of the contract. The plant will be located near the village of Yana, adjacent to Sofia.

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